The Thing About Timing
by The-other-8th-wonder
Summary: Sam and Mercedes always had bad timing...or did they?


**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing**

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Mercedes stared at the clock. The stupid black clock that mocked her with every tick and every movement.

Because when it came down to it, they always had bad timing.

It started at a dance, seemingly ages ago. He wore a bolo tie and she wore a $5 dress. She watched her friends dancing and silently ached. She'd never be one of them and couldn't blame them for drifting away from her. The beautiful, popular them would never really mesh with the lonely her. But he came along and gave her her deepest desire—he told her she was beautiful and made her feel wanted. Lord help her, she took his hand and believed him.

That was only the beginning. And everything was so perfect then, back when she was love and he was light and together they were invincible. When affection was measured in tilt a whirl rides and cotton candy at the carnival. Where summer never ended.

Except it had.

Always reaching, always missing. And every miscue leaving a bigger hole than before. Every loss growing in profoundness.

He had to leave. His father found a job. His family could have a home. And she? She was just another dream deferred. Another thing he would give up for his family. When she gave him up she lost that part of herself that believed in happily-ever-after. She allowed her heart to harden and focused on protecting it at all costs.

He came back all bright brilliant and determined. He told her they were getting back together. Told her he didn't care about her fear. She'd never admit it, but a piece of her pragmatic heart crumbled that day.

And she gave in a little.

First it was with stolen glances then shy and secret smiles. The last of her resolve crumbled when she saw her name in lights. He gave her glimpses of a future she'd only dared to dream of. She'd kissed him with promise and passion. He smiled. And she knew they were doomed. When she couldn't talk to him for a week she found herself looking up at a clock, willing it to move faster so that she could be closer to him only to have him ripped away by her own fear.

Always reaching, always missing.

Except he refused to stop trying. He showed her then told her how much he admired her talent, giving her her deepest desire—someone who believed in her and her future. Lord help her, she took his lips and got lost in them.

But his gift came at a cost. It was her time to leave him. Her turn to change his heart. He'd let go of the man she made him want to be, the man his family's circumstance forced him to be and reverted back to being a child. Back to a time when life was fun. When there was no struggle, no pain. When it was okay to merely exist. When the goal was to _maintain_.

So it came as no shock that he found someone easy, someone whose pain he recognized but didn't have to address. It was good. And when she came back to town he dug his heels deeper into his new relationship with his fear. He couldn't be alone. It didn't matter anyway because she ignored him. So he in turn did the same.

It was stupid, foolish, cruel but totally necessary. Because if they couldn't exist together they didn't exist apart.

Every miscue leaving a bigger hole than before.

They'd grown to live without each other. On opposite sides. Oceans apart. She maintained and so did he. But she was tired of being lonely. Lord help her she wanted someone who set her heart on fire. And she knew just the someone to offer the match.

But she'd grown weary and he'd grown impossibly more determined.

Every loss growing in profoundness.

She was used to being alone, she learned to accept loneliness but he knew what it was like to be with her and without her and he chose to be with her. To have her above all else. He couldn't live without her.

And he told her so.

Faced with the prospect of losing her again he had to prove his worth. Prove that he was future-material. That she could lay her hopes and dreams with him and they would be safe.

But she knew that. And she knew they would be alright.

So as she watched the clock and heard the key turn in the door she couldn't stop the rush of excitement that bubbled over her. Because he was life and love and light. He set her heart on fire. She looked to him, offering one of her incandescent smiles, the ones that made his heart race a little faster. Ignoring the cupcakes she spent all afternoon baking, she ran into his arms and never let go.

She promised herself she never would.


End file.
